Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is purportedly an ape-like creature that inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid.
The scientific community considers Bigfoot to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than a real creature.

Scientific consensus does not support the posited existence of megafauna cryptids such as Bigfoot, because of the improbably large numbers necessary to maintain a breeding population, and because climate and food supply issues would make such purported creatures' survival in reported habitats unlikely.
Nevertheless, Bigfoot is one of the more famous examples of a cryptid within cryptozoology and an enduring legend. A small minority of accredited scientists profess the view that evidence collected of alleged Bigfoot encounters warrants further evaluation and testing.

Bigfoot is described in reports as a large hairy ape-like creature, ranging between 6–10 feet (2–3 m) tall, weighing in excess of 500 pounds (230 kg), and covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair.

Alleged witnesses have described large eyes, a pronounced brow ridge, and a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded and crested, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla.
Bigfoot is commonly reported to have a strong, unpleasant smell by those who claim to have encountered it. The enormous footprints for which it is named have been as large as 24 inches (60 cm) long and 8 inches (20 cm) wide.

While most casts have five toes—like all known apes—some casts of alleged Bigfoot tracks have had numbers ranging from two to six. Some have also contained claw marks, making it likely that a portion came from known animals such as bears, which have five toes and claws. Proponents have also claimed that Bigfoot is omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.

Bigfoot Sightings

About a third of all Bigfoot sightings are concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, with most of the remaining sightings spread throughout the rest of North America.

Some Bigfoot advocates, such as cryptozoologist John Willison Green, have postulated that Bigfoot is a worldwide phenomenon.

The most notable sightings include:

1924: Fred Beck claimed that he and four other miners were attacked one night in July 1924, by several "apemen" throwing rocks at their cabin in an area later called Ape Canyon, Washington.

Beck claimed the miners shot and possibly killed at least one of the creatures, precipitating an attack on their cabin, during which the creatures bombarded the cabin with rocks and tried to break-in. The incident was widely reported at the time. Beck wrote a book about the event in

1967, in which he argued that the alleged creatures were mystical beings from another dimension, claiming that he had experienced psychic premonitions and visions his entire life of which the apemen were only one component. Speleologist William Halliday argued in 1983 that the story arose from an incident in which hikers from a nearby camp had thrown rocks into the canyon. There are also local rumors that pranksters harassed the men and planted faked footprints.

1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed to have escaped their home when a large Sasquatch, allegedly 7.5 feet (2.3 m) tall, approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.

1958: Bulldozer operator Jerry Crew took to a newspaper office a cast of one of the enormous footprints he and other workers had been seeing at an isolated work site at Bluff Creek, California. The crew was overseen by Wilbur L. Wallace, brother of Raymond L. Wallace. After Ray Wallace's death, his children came forward with a pair of 16-inch (41 cm) wooden feet, which they claimed their father had used to fake the Bigfoot tracks in 1958.

Wallace is poorly regarded by many Bigfoot proponents. John Napier wrote, "I do not feel impressed with Mr. Wallace's story" regarding having over 15,000 feet (4,600 m) of film showing Bigfoot.

1967: Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin reported that on October 20 they had captured a purported Sasquatch on film at Bluff Creek, California. This came to be known as the Patterson-Gimlin film, which is purported to be the best evidence of Bigfoot by many advocates. Many years later, Bob Heironimus, an acquaintance of Patterson's, claimed that he had worn an ape costume for the making of the film.

2007: On September 16, 2007, hunter Rick Jacobs captured an image of a possible sasquatch using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree. A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Game Commission challenged the Bigfoot explanation, saying that it looked like "a bear with a severe case of mange."

In 2008 scientists worked out the size of the Jacobs creature in an article written by Vanessa Woods, which showed that the proportions of the creature were not similar to a bear's. The sighting happened near the town of Ridgway, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny National Forest.
Certain individuals believe that what is being seen is an animal called the Skunk Ape.

The Skunk Ape is a hominid cryptid said to inhabit the Southern United States, from places such as North Carolina and Arkansas, although reports from Florida are most common.

It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it.

Some reports say the skunk ape is so stinky because it rolls itself in animal carcasses to get people to leave it alone.

According to the United States National Park Service, the skunk ape exists only as a local myth. Reports of the Skunk ape were particularly common in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the fall of 1974, numerous sightings were reported in suburban neighborhoods of Dade County, Florida, of a large, foul-smelling, hairy, ape-like creature, which ran upright on two legs.

Bigfoot and the Scientific Community

The scientific
community is generally skeptical about the existence of Bigfoot, as
there is little physical evidence supporting the existence of the
creature.

The evidence that does exist points more towards a hoax or delusion than to sightings of a genuine creature.
In a 1996 USA Today article
titled "Bigfoot Merely Amuses Most Scientists", Washington State
zoologist John Crane is quoted as saying: "There is no such thing as Bigfoot. No data other than material that's clearly been fabricated has ever been presented."
Great apes are not found in
the fossil record in the Americas, and no verified Bigfoot remains have
ever been discovered. Scientists insist that the breeding population of
such an animal would be so large that it would account for many more
purported sightings than currently occur, reducing the likelihood such
an animal exists.John Napier (a researcher on Bigfoot) asserts that the scientific community's attitude towards Bigfoot stems primarily from insufficient evidence. Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny."

He advises that mainstream skeptics take a proactive position "to offer an alternative explanation. We have to explain why we see Bigfoot when there is no such animal."

Photographs or plaster casts of presumed Sasquatch footprints are often
cited by cryptozoologists as important evidence. It is from that that
Bigfoot received its most widely used name.

They are typically 15 inches
long. Advocates of Bigfoot claim that tracks provide enough evidence to
determine whether a footprint is genuine or hoaxed without having a
gold standard from which to work from.

A few scientists have offered varying degrees of support for Bigfoot study and beliefs. Field biologist George Shaller has spoken in favor of greater study of Bigfoot evidence while still expressing skepticism towards the possibility of its existence.
Similarly, Napier has argued that some "soft evidence" is compelling enough that he advises against "dismissing its reality out of hand." Other scientists who have expressed guarded interest in Sasquatch reports include Russell Mittermeier, Daris Swindler, and Esteban Sarmiento. Jane Goodall, in a 2002 interview, expressed her personal hope of the existence of Bigfoot, but allowed that there is no concrete evidence for the creature. Anthropologist Carleton S. Coon, whose theories on the evolution of race in humans have been largely discredited, expressed support for Bigfoot's existence in a posthumously published essay.

Various types of creatures have been suggested to explain both the sightings and what type of creature Bigfoot would be if it existed. The scientific community typically attributes sightings to either hoaxes or misidentification of known animals and their tracks.

While cryptozoologists generally explain Bigfoot as an unknown ape, some believers in Bigfoot attribute the phenomenon to UFOs or other paranormal causes. A minority of proponents of a natural explanation have attributed Bigfoot to animals that are not apes such as the giant ground sloth.

San Antonio Bigfoot 911 Call

November 30th, 2009 Sighting of Bigfoot in San Antonio Texas.
News Report and 911 Call.

A homeless couple living in the woods spotted a Bigfoot creature dragging a deer. San Antonio police have released a 911 dispatch call reporting a "Bigfoot" sighting.
The
audio recording between a dispatcher and the homeless couple lasts more
than eight minutes. In it, the primary caller appears sober and
deliberate as she describes the beast Nov. 30th.
"And I know you
guys are going to think I'm crazy, but I'm dead serious," she says on
the recording.

"This big thing was 75 feet away from me, smelled awful,
devoured a whole deer carcass, and then took off and screamed,
screeched, and took off across the street.""I'm going to tell you
right now, I've lived in the woods six years. Swear to God, I've never
seen nothing like this. I'm 6'3; it's bigger than me" said her 63-year
old husband.
The couple claims the creature walked upright as it carried the deer carcass off into the woods. Police reports indicate dispatchers sent an officer by the location that night, but he found no sign of the couple or the beast. The
callers said they were living in a tent in the woods in northwest San
Antonio, near the intersection of Highway 151 and Loop 1604. The area
has acres of wooded terrain surrounding it.The Animal X- Natural Mystery Unit may finally have proof that Bigfoot,
more properly known as the 'Unidentified North American Primate', is
alive and well. Daniel and Natalie join Bigfoot researcher Chester
Moore, who says he's found the home of an elusive non-human primate at a
secret location in Texas.

As they search for clues, our
investigators are stalked by this unknown creature for more than 24
hours.
They hear eerie night calls, see broken and twisted tree limbs,
and are convinced that it was Bigfoot they glimpsed disappearing into
the forest. Could the mysterious image captured on their cameras be the
face of the Texas Bigfoot?
Are these animals an unidentified
category of ape or maybe they're the missing link that science has been
looking for? Amongst those convinced that Bigfoot exists is a prominent
American criminologist and fingerprint expert. He has no doubt that
footprint casts claimed to have been made by Bigfoot are genuine.